If there are concrete goals you want to be kept accountable for, please let me know. I hope those of you who have already nominated goals will check in and let us know how you are going... else, be prepared to deal with an orc raiding party :)

The beginning of the week seems a l o o o n g time ago. I had a nice, relaxed start, watching the Super Bowl with my dad, sister and nephew (yes, I know we're Australian).

The end of the week has been much less fun, involving dealing with irreconcilable artistic differences with one author and some very unprofessional conduct from another. I have been stressed out and very, very angry. Fortunately, the final deadline is COB Monday.

In the meantime, some of my partner's friends are coming around this morning for a pancake breakfast and to play Cards Against Humanity. I have another friend coming over for dinner and to watch Part 2 of Red Cliff. I cancelled a session playing Robin Hood tomorrow because I have to get more work done before the end of Monday.

My baby started preschool! *cries dramatically* In all seriousness, I'm coping fine with it thus far. I've been enjoying the me-time. He's been finding it a big adjustment, though. The preschool structure just isn't something he's used to. He's only been there three days so I'm not terribly worried yet.

Not much to report this week. I've been very tired, and still been wishing that some people around me would catch a break. But I also got a lovely email from a dear friend, whose words brought me a lot of comfort and the reminder that I'm not alone.

I'm a bit sore in the arms from all the snow shovelling I did, and having to lug my guitar to lessons twice this week (first lesson being cancelled at the last minute due to a snowstorm).

Currently trying to poke myself into doing some last minute writing before the weekend, uh, ends.

I had a lovely Saturday with only a little work and lots of nice time with friends & husband, but then a full 8 hour day on Sunday and then it's back to a full week now. My reserves are being drained and I've got to the annoying phase of 'need to be in work for experiments at times x, y and z but cannot muster the energy/brain power to do much productive stuff between them'. I.e. being at work for the sake of being there. *sigh* I hate that, because there are things to do, just damnit I cannot make my brain plod through all the steps of getting them going. Ugh.

In brighter news, my copies of Nightrunners #s 5 and 6 arrived yesterday, two days early. I've actually (*gasp*) not started them yet, but I shall in a day or two (just need to watch some things on i-player before they are no longer there).

I am lost in a vast sea of moving woes and work. Very little else is happening lately, or looming in my immediate future.The work restructure has been deferred for "an indeterminate period" while they work out how the hell to do it, so uncertainty abounds. I am growing deeply unoptimistic about our fates (and mine), but we'll see.

Meanwhile, for some reason I have actually been absurdly cheerful all week. Since it makes little sense, I'm not examining the reasons too hard, but I suspect it has something to do with multiple old friends all posting old photos of wonderful times online. Sometimes I wonder how much I see through rose-tinted glasses, but I only have to look at the giggling idiots in the photos to realise memory doesn't exaggerate. I have led a ridiculously charmed life full of impossibly beautiful human beings, and it ain't over just yet.

Maybe I will choke on my soft apple puree tomorrow (I've stopped taking it to work for breakfast, the mockery is too much).

What creative projects have you been working on this week and how have they been coming along? Whether you are looking for someone to celebrate or commiserate with, we're always happy to support our friends. Although if you're looking for help with taming unruly characters, you'll likely be on your own for that :DPeople with nominated goalsPlease note these can be changed at any time

ladylight: Finishing Corpserakerannarti: 500 words a day on Silent Harmony: Gold (or every second workday).nihiriki: Rewrite/finish two chapters.little_lynnet: 3 new scenes of Space Ghosts and 6 chapters of That Novel.silvanime: Finishing edits on the Undertow anthologysidheblessed: Finishing and submitting a short story to the FableCroft anthology.

I've done quite a bit of work on my short story in the last couple of days, after getting some excellent advice on how to improve it. I think it's a better story now. At this point, I seem to be on track to meet the deadline.

No words this week, except for some vague pondering about demons/the demon queen. I feel kind of wiped out, actually. 0_o I should maybe poke at something else other than NaNo 2013 but don't have the space for it even though the first quarter deadline of the Talechasing challenge is looming. I'm finding myself distracted by everything (books, internet, music, etc., etc...)

I've been having a very thought-provoking chat with little_lynnet about my Black Narcissus character. We'll see if any writing actually comes of it. First, I need to do some more reading and research - Rococco fashion, balls and dressmaking (no... this story is so honestly not at *ALL* an excuse for costume descriptions...).

Still no Corpseraker. Tintauri spent a paragraph or two snarking with his divine archenemy, the Guide of the Dead, but I've been too tired and too occupied with moving/work to do much else. (What Tintauri would make of the Grim, I do not know ...)

Oh, I did also manage a page or two of my new characters, though they did very little except wrangle. I think I like them, though the world is still half-baked. I don't have nearly enough characters who wrangle, since the Old Days, and it's impossible to get a story cranking without vaguely interesting characters to drive it - I think this is probably why all things fae have ground to a halt, even though I think as a world/setting it's by far the most developed of the lot.

Have you come across something that has set fire to your imagination? Have you found an interesting article you'd like to share? Perhaps you've been reading something good or seen something exciting at the movies?